The Director of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Mohamed Amin, has announced a major crackdown targeting ghost workers and payroll fraud syndicates accused of siphoning billions of shillings from the public wage bill.
Speaking during a joint press briefing with Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku on Tuesday, July 8, Amin disclosed that the DCI had received a Human Resource Audit and Forensic Report uncovering suspected irregularities worth Ksh6.2 billion within the government's payroll system.
He said detectives had already launched an evidence-led investigation into the alleged fraud involving 1,054,425 public officers drawn from various ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs) and county governments.
"We have received a Human Resource Audit and Forensic report, and we are fully equipped under evidence-based investigation to look into the suspected payroll fraud, including the reported irregularities amounting to Ksh6.2 billion identified in the initial audit report," stated DCI Amin.
According to Amin, investigators will first authenticate the personal numbers used in payroll processing to identify and eliminate ghost workers who may have infiltrated the system.
The investigation will also scrutinise all unauthorised changes made to employee records, suspicious payments and weaknesses in internal controls that may have enabled the alleged fraud.
Beyond identifying fraudulent payments, the DCI says it is determined to break up the criminal networks suspected of manipulating the government's payroll systems.
"Our teams will verify the personal numbers used in the payroll processing. We shall further examine all unauthorised alterations to records, all irregular payments, and weak controls and dismantle any criminal network that is involved in the manipulation of our government's payroll systems," DCI Amin said.
Amin assured the public that the investigations would be concluded as quickly as possible.
To support the probe, the DCI will work alongside agencies including the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), asset recovery agencies and other security institutions to trace and recover any stolen public funds.
He added that officials from the National Treasury, internal audit units and the Ministry of Public Service would also be involved in the investigations.
The DCI boss warned that anyone found responsible for the alleged fraud, regardless of rank or position, would face legal action, adding that the public would receive regular updates on the progress of the investigations.
The announcement came shortly after CS Ruku directed all government ministries, departments, agencies and state corporations to migrate to the new Human Resource Information System (HRIS) within one month or risk delays in salary payments.
According to Ruku, the transition to the unified payroll platform is intended to improve accountability, eliminate payroll fraud and strengthen oversight of public sector employees.
